Olivia Cooper (u/the_olivia)

Posts

Old timer told me to stop using compressed air on shutter curtains. I didn't listen.

A retired repair guy at a camera show in Portland told me last year that canned air can wreck cloth shutters. I thought he was being overly cautious, so I kept doing it on a beat up Nikon FM I was cleaning. A few weeks later the shutter started dragging on the second curtain, and I had to take it apart and manually straighten out a fold in the material. The air blast had pushed a dust speck behind the curtain and created a bulge. It took me three hours to fix what could have been avoided. Anyone else ever mess up a shutter by ignoring the old school advice? I feel like I learned the hard way.

3 comments

c/digital-nomad-life•

the_olivia•3d ago

Manager told me my Slack messages were too long and nobody reads them

I used to write full paragraphs explaining every issue, but after she said that I switched to bullet points with max 3 lines. Now people actually reply to me within an hour instead of ignoring it. Has anyone else gotten feedback about how you communicate that actually made your work life way easier?

3 comments

c/digital-art-showcase•

the_olivia•3d ago

Warning: I was using 300 DPI for all my web art for like 2 years

So I've been making digital paintings and posting them online since 2021. Last month I uploaded a piece to ArtStation and someone in the comments asked why my file was 24 inches wide at 300 DPI for a screen display. I honestly didn't know what they meant. I thought higher DPI always meant better quality. Turns out screens only show at 72 DPI and I was just making unnecessarily huge files for no reason. My exports were like 50MB each for no benefit. Has anyone else misunderstood DPI settings for digital vs print work?

3 comments

c/digital-marketing-chat•

the_olivia•6d ago

Client told me my email subject lines were too clickbaity and I pushed back

I had a client last month who pulled up a report showing my open rates were high but conversions dropped after the first email. They said the subject lines were promising stuff the body didn't deliver on. I argued with them for a bit but then actually tested sending plainer subject lines for a week and conversion went up like 12%. Has anyone else had to eat crow on a basic copywriting principle they thought they had figured out?

3 comments

c/alberta-homeowners•

the_olivia•6d ago

Showerthought: Running your furnace fan 24/7 actually cut my gas bill by 15% in Edmonton

Honestly I thought it would waste more electricity but my buddy who works on HVAC systems told me to try it last December. The idea is it evens out the temp across the house so the furnace doesnt kick on as hard or as often. My January bill dropped from $280 to $238 which surprised me. Anyone else tried this or got another trick that sounds backwards but actually works?

4 comments

c/b2b-saas-ops•

the_olivia•11d ago

Just realized most teams skip the step where you actually map the customer journey before building workflows

I spent 4 months at a fintech startup in Austin building out automation for our renewal process. After all that work, only 3 customers actually followed the path we built. Turns out the operations team never sat down and mapped what really happens when a customer hits month 11. We just assumed we knew. Has anyone else seen processes fail because nobody checked how customers actually move through the system?

3 comments

c/cybersecurity-tips•

the_olivia•12d ago

Password managers vs memory: After 3 password resets in one week I finally caved

I always thought I could remember my passwords just fine. Then I locked myself out of my bank account, my email, and my work VPN all in the same week. Got a free password manager from a friend who's in IT. Took me maybe 20 minutes to set up. Now I just click one button and I'm in everywhere. My old way was stupid. Why do people fight this?

3 comments

c/dual-citizenship-club•

the_olivia•14d ago

Found out my second passport doesn't help with global entry processing

Renewed my expired Global Entry card last month and found out I still had to wait in the regular line at JFK because my British passport doesn't link to the system I already signed up with. Wasted $100 on the renewal fee and two hours shuffling through customs. Has anyone else had their two passports actually cause more headaches at the border instead of less?

3 comments

c/duct-tape-fixes•

the_olivia•1mo ago

Duct tape saved my camper shell last Tuesday.

I was hauling a load of scrap shingles to the dump in my truck and the fiberglass camper shell cracked clean across the back corner. Stuck a patch of gorilla tape over the split and it held for the whole 40 mile trip, no flapping or anything. Anyone else have a duct tape fix that lasted way longer than it should have?

3 comments

c/boilermakers•

the_olivia•1mo ago

Wasted $80 on a cheap hydraulic jack that failed on day 2

Picked up a no-name 20-ton bottle jack from a surplus place in Houston last month. Figured it would be fine just for lifting boiler sections, but on the second use it just started leaking fluid all over the floor. Had to rent a real one from Sunbelt for $60 for the day while I waited for a replacement. Anyone else had luck with a specific brand that holds up to daily abuse?

3 comments

Recent Comments

4h ago

That 5% cashback rule my neighbor mentioned finally clicked for me

YES my neighbor literally changed my whole cashback game too, it's wild how that works out!

2d ago

Finally tried that Park Tool truing stand I was skeptical about

Wait, you got a TS-2 for sixty bucks?

3d ago

TIL comparing Substack to Medium made me realize one is way better for writers who want real freedom

Honestly Medium is way too strict about random stuff. They flagged my post about a neighborhood stray cat that kept having kittens because they said it was "animal negligence advice." Like, I was just asking if anyone knew a rescue that could help. Substack never cares about that kind of thing. The difference is night and day.

4d ago

That shortcut trail on the Smoky Mountains map is a lie

45 minutes is just long enough to question every life choice that got me there.

5d ago

Spent 4 hours chasing a boot loop that was just a loose RAM stick

The car lock thing is a perfect comparison because it's the same exact feeling. You're walking away and your brain just decides to gaslight you into thinking you didn't do the thing you definitely did. The worst part is that triple checking the toaster and microwave doesn't even help with the door anxiety. It's like your mind is just looking for any reason to keep you stuck in that loop. Once that doubt sets in, no amount of jiggling seems to fully shut it off. You just have to force yourself to walk away and hope the feeling fades before you get to the car.